Max Dumesny #5 Crane Cams / Landrigan's Earthmoving Pontiac

    Hello again, and welcome back to the NASCAR Racing Champions diecast blog~ Today's post is going to be a special "Australian" post, where we'll be looking back on Max Dumesny's time in the #5 Crane Cams/Landrigan's Earthmoving Pontiac, which he drove his rookie season in the Australian NASCAR series~

    Now, I must start off by saying that I am very upset with the Australians for their extremely poor record keeping of the Australian NASCAR series~ I researched until my eyes started bleeding, and still came up with pretty much nothing informational about the stats of the series~ So in the famous words of Dave Marcis, I'll have to do the best with what I got on this one~

                                                            Dumesny heads for the pits~

    The idea of bringing NASCAR to Australia was first brought up by four time Australian Touring Car champion, Bob Jane~ He personally invested $54,000,000 to build the Calder Park Thunderdome, which he modeled after Charlotte Motor Speedway~ They broke ground for the track in 1986, with hopes of running the first race in 1987~

    With the completion of the Calder Park Thunderdome extensions in 1987, the much delayed debut NASCAR race finally happened near the end of the year, with the first major event, the "Goodyear NASCAR 500" running on February 28, 1988~

    Initially Cup drivers such as Neil Bonnett, Bobby Allison, Michael Waltrip, Dave Marcis and Kyle Petty visited the Thunderdome but they lost interest over time, so big name "guest" drivers were lured from circuit racing to help sweeten the pot~ Star touring car drivers Allan Grice and Dick Johnson were both early supporters of the concept, with both traveling to America to race in the Cup Series, although they had little success~

                              Dumesny also had brief sponsorship from Pizza Hut, shown here~

    I forgot to mention this before I got started, so I guess now is a good time to mention that his last name is pronounced "dumbs-knee" for those who didn't know~ For the longest time, I was calling him "Max Doom-ez-knee"~ As with many American drivers, Max got his start on dirt tracks, and is a muli-time champion spanning all sorts of racing divisions, though Sprintcars were his specialty, with 7 championships~

    Dumesny married his wife Melinda (who is also a Sprintcar driver) in 1986, and they have four children, all of whom are now racers themselves~ Max just turned 58 on July 12th, and is still winning races and track titles, in a career that has spanned more than 35 years~ In 2015, the Speedway Racing Association of Victoria granted "Life Membership" to Dumesny, and allocated his racing number "V5" to only be used by a Dumesny~

    Max finished runner up in the Championship standings in his rookie campaign in the Australian NASCAR series~ I don't know if he won any races, because I couldn't find any stats for that season~ I did find where he was runner up, and that he drove this Pontiac~ The following season, the team switched to Oldsmobiles, and Dumesny won the championship~

                                                           Dumesny blows an engine~

    Dumesny won 3 races during the 1992-93 Australian NASCAR season, as well as winning his only championship in the series~ Two years later, he again finished runner up in the points battle, before focusing more on his Sprintcar career~ The series folded in 2001, due to the growing popularity of the V8 Supercar series~

    I really don't know what else to say about Dumesny's time in the Australian NASCAR series~ Records weren't properly kept, and if they were, they're not anywhere on the internet~ I guess Australian's just didn't really care for NASCAR, so no one cared to save any records, or preserve them on the internet for others to view~

    I was able to find a couple of races, and took some nice screenshots of his cars, but I have nothing to write about other than what I've already written, so there's no point in adding the other pictures~ If anyone is interested in them, just email me @ buttermilkjug@yahoo.com, and I'll send them to you~ I feel kind of horrible about this post, but it's out of my control.. it's the Australians fault~ I tried everything I could think of to find those stats, but kept coming up empty~ Shame on you, the Australians.. shame right on you~

                             Max Dumesny #5 Crane Cams/Landrigan's Earthmoving Pontiac~

                                                              Click pics to enlarge~

    It's a shame I couldn't find those stats to do a proper post on Dumesny, because I really like this car~ Yeah, it's a little basic... but it's pretty noticeable on the track (from the races I saw), and it's also pretty noticeable in your Racing Champions collection~ It stands out a lot since many people in America have never even heard of Max Dumesny, let alone seen his Racing Champions diecast~

    If you enlarge the pictures, you can see the "Thunderdome" contingency on the car~ Racing Champions also made a Thunderdome car for their 1992 Track/Event car set, which is one of the harder ones to obtain, along with the pink/blue Dover Downs car~ You pretty much just have to order it from Ebay, because it's basically impossible to find, at least where I'm from~ I did luck out and find this Dumesny car at my local flea market~ It was in the dollar bin, and I grabbed it out as fast as I could~

   The card for this one isn't the best, but it's better than some~ I would have preferred a shot of Dumesny standing in a field with the car~ I'd give this car a B+ on the Racing Champions quality scale for that very reason~ I enjoy having this car in my collection even if I couldn't find all the information I wanted to find for it~ It's a little piece of NASCAR history, albeit a totally forgotten piece thanks to the greedy butt Australians~ Let's just move on to the bonus car for this post~

                                            Robbie Stanley #62 Linville Racing Chevrolet~

    Robbie Stanley was an extremely talented USAC Sprint Car driver who dominated the series during the early 1990's, winning three straight titles from 1991-1993~  He was a native of Indiana, born on November 16th, 1967~

    After failing to obtain sponsorship for his BGN car, Stanley decided to try for a fourth USAC championship~ It was a decision that sadly cost him his life, as he was killed during an accident at Winchester Speedway on May 26th, 1994~

    This isn't the best job I've done on a custom~ I'm not very pleased with the numbers, but it was the best I could do with what I had to work with~ This car was requested by a member of a diecast forum that I am for some reason no longer allowed to reply on~ Hopefully he sees that it finally made it onto the blog~ Below are some videos on Dumesny and Stanley, enjoy them.. and please share this post with your friends on social media~ :)

                                                      Very short Dumesny interview~

                           Dumesny wins the 1989-90 World Series Sprintcar Championship~

                                                  Very short Melinda Dumesny interview~

             
                                                Robbie Stanley tribute from Dave Despain~